Half-a-Billion dollar Giveaway to Big Pharma Hidden in the 'Fiscal Bluff' Legislation

[grahamhgreen]

Last edited Sun Jan 20, 2013, 03:08 PM - Edit history (1)

The provision gives Amgen an additional two years to sell Sensipar without government controls. The news was so welcome that the company’s chief executive quickly relayed it to investment analysts. But it is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over that period.

Amgen, which has a small army of 74 lobbyists in the capital, was the only company to argue aggressively for the delay, according to several Congressional aides of both parties.

But critics, including several Congressional aides who were stunned to find the measure in the final bill, pointed out that Amgen had already won a previous two-year delay, and they depicted a second one as an unnecessary giveaway. “That is why we are in the trouble we are in,” said Dennis J. Cotter, a health policy researcher who studies the cost and efficacy of dialysis drugs. “Everybody is carving out their own turf and getting it protected, and we pass the bill on to the taxpayer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/us/medicare-pricing-delay-is-political-win-for-amgen-drug-maker.html?_r=0


It's not funny. They pass a bill to 'reduce the deficit' that winds up costing Medicare more - in order that they have an excuse to cut the benefits, presumably, as well as enrich their benefactors.

[green for victory]

1. If more people cared real progress could begin

Here's a start:



David Healy, Pharmageddon
Has American health care been highjacked by Big Pharma?
http://www.amazon.com/Pharmageddon-David-Healy/dp/0520270983/

This searing indictment, David Healy's most comprehensive and forceful argument against the pharmaceuticalization of medicine, tackles problems in health care that are leading to a growing number of deaths and disabilities. Healy, who was the first to draw attention to the now well-publicized suicide-inducing side effects of many anti-depressants, attributes our current state of affairs to three key factors:

product rather than process patents on drugs, the classification of certain drugs as prescription-only, and industry-controlled drug trials.

These developments have tied the survival of pharmaceutical companies to the development of blockbuster drugs, so that they must overhype benefits and deny real hazards. Healy further explains why these trends have basically ended the possibility of universal health care in the United States and elsewhere around the world. He concludes with suggestions for reform of our currently corrupted evidence-based medical system.

Check out the reviews.

Free podcast-interview with Dr. Healy- Jefferson Exchange- October 2, 2012 Phamargeddon
http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/jpr/id/2084251

Which American Doctors are proposing a fix?

[grahamhgreen]

3. Great stuff, thank you.

[bahrbearian]

2. Of course,

It had to be rushed , It had it be passed in the dark of night,